By Candace Zafirellis
Three new paintings by acclaimed artist Mel Leipzig, professor of art and art history at Mercer County Community College, will be unveiled at a special event on Wednesday, March 14.
The college and Leipzig are co-hosting the free event at the Conference Center at Mercer from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. to help raise funds for a student art gallery planned at the Trenton campus on North Broad Street. Guests will enjoy hors d’oeuvres and the opportunity to meet the artist.
Models for the Leipzig paintings were students, faculty and staff of the college, including Jeanne Calo, a 95-year old artist and student of Leipzig for more than 20 years. “The Cashiers at the College Cafeteria” portrays John Curt Leven and Tiara Goodman, and “The Math Teacher” portrays long-time MCCC Professor Art Schwartz.
Leipzig, a much-heralded painter, has garnered a multitude of awards and honors for his work. He was featured in ArtNews Magazine’s November 2011 issue. In recent years, Leipzig has had shows at the Pennington School, Rider University, Richard Stockton College and the West Windsor Arts Council. His works are part of the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, The White House, and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum.
In 2006, Leipzig was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Design in New York. His awards and recognitions include a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, and a grant in painting from the National Endowment for the Arts. Leipzig studied at Cooper Union, Yale University and Pratt Institute, where he earned his M.F.A. Art critic Burton Wasserman has described him as "New Jersey’s greatest living painter."
For further information contact the artist at 609-570-3353.

